The Bible

 

Genesis 1:31

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31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #414

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414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4263

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4263. 'Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats; two hundred sheep and twenty rams' means Divine goods and accompanying truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'she-goats and sheep' as goods, dealt with in 3995, 4006, 4169; from the meaning of 'he-goats and rams' as truths, dealt with in 4005, 4170, in this case Divine goods and truths. The reason why goods and truths are mentioned so many times, and why they are meant by so many different things, is that everything in heaven or in the Church has a relationship with them - everything of love and charity with good, and everything of faith with truth. Yet the genera and species of good and truth are countless, indeed limitless, as becomes clear from the fact that all who are governed by good are within the Lord's kingdom and yet good is not one and the same with one community as it is with another, nor is it even one and the same with one individual within a community as it is with another. For it is by no means possible for one and the same good to exist in two individuals, still less in many, for if one and the same good existed in them, there would not even be two, let alone many of them. Every single whole consists of varying parts, doing so through heavenly harmony and concord.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.